Robert Miguel: This is Rock A.D. on Deep
Ellum Radio. Alright, here it is, time for our very, very special guest.
Please welcome Christian alternative music pioneer, acclaimed record
producer, filmmaker, and the vocalist of Steve Taylor & The Perfect
Foil. The one, the only, mister Steve Taylor. How are you sir?

Steve Taylor: I'm fine, Robert. Thank you
for the kind intro. I'm actually on the tour bus. We are travelling
through Amish country, so if somewhere during the tour I just get excited
and yell out "buggy" or "chickens" or something like that, you'll know
why.

RM: Alright, I will totally understand if
you have to stop to churn some butter or raise a barn or something.

ST: We played "Amish Paradise" just to get
in the mood.

RM: Yeah, we absolutely love some Weird Al
out there. Alright, you are on the road right now, currently on the road
with Peter Furler, formerly of Newsboys, his new Peter Furler Band, he's
playing drums for you, and of course you're headlining with Steve Taylor
& The Perfect Foil. Now it has been a while since you've hit the road,
what, something like 20 years?

ST: Man, it's been a really long time,
yeah, almost that long.

RM: So tell me, how is the road treating
you thus far?

ST: I have to re-learn everything!
Remembering, "How do I tie my shoes when I'm jumping around? When do I get
before a show? Is an hour too short? Two hours too long? How do you get
these clothes dry after the show's done?" Yeah, you know, I've gotta go
through rehabilitation to remember how to do this.

RM: Now Steve, you're a rock legend, a
living rock icon, come on, don't tell me you don't have people there to
pick out your M&M's for you?

ST: You would think I would have some
people there to feed me and dress me, but it hasn't worked that way so
far.

RM: Apparently it's been so long they ever
forgot their job as well. Well, I'll tell you what, your fans are just so
excited you even decided to get out on the road again. So what exactly
spurred this long-awaited return to the road?

ST: It's a bit of a long story. The last
movie I did, Blue Like Jazz, took almost seven years to
finally get filmed. A lot of that was just spent trying to get the money
raised.

It got so tedious, so life-sucking, that I remembered, hey, I used to
make music for a living, and compared to spending seven years to make a
movie, music is like total instant gratification. So I got with my old
friend Peter Furler and we thought, let's just put a little band together
and get together in the studio on Mondays, just almost for therapy.

We asked Jimmy Abegg to join us from Ragamuffin Band and Charlie Peacock
days, he's been a friend forever, and then John Mark Painter has also been
a friend forever, he's a fantastic studio musician in town, and of course
has his own group "Fleming & John" that was signed to Universal.

The more we did it, the more it started sounding like something, so we
were pretty close to having an album done, and then the movie got funded by
a Kickstarter campaign. The next thing you know, I'm making a movie, and
it took almost two years to go through the whole process of making it,
finishing it, promoting it, all that stuff.

Finally, it's time to get back to the music.

RM: And of course your film Blue
Like Jazz was critically-acclaimed, and is available now for
purchase or rental on DVD, so if you haven't got it, pick it up now.

ST: Thanks, yeah, we debuted at South by
Southwest, so that was a great day for all of us.

RM: Now you did manage to get one brand
new track on that Blue Like Jazz motion picture soundtrack,
which is great. From what I understand, you are in the middle of another
Kickstarter campaign to fund the new album by Steve Taylor & The
Perfect Foil. Where are you on that?

ST: Well, it was supposed to be done by
now, and we are very apologetic that it's not. We're really close. You
know, the closer you get to being finished, the more I start second-
guessing things, wondering if the mix needs to be tweaked, and all that
stuff. So the pressure is on.

RM: Oh yeah, it's been a long time, so of
course everybody's watching, and so you gotta do it right.

ST: Yeah, if they wait that long and it's
not a good album, that would be bad.

RM: Alright, now in the past it's always
been Steve Taylor & Some Band, or Steve Taylor solo, or your stint with
Chagall Guevara. This time around it's Steve Taylor & The Perfect
Foil. You've accumulated some great musicians within their own right. Is
this more of a solo effort, or more of a band effort?

ST: It really is a band effort. We make
the music together, and then I'll go off and write the lyrics. I like to
think it's a really good combination of everybody working at what they do
best. We typically start with one of Peter's melodies--I think he's the
best melody writer I know--and then it's just a matter of let's see how far
we can push this melody around and it still holds up. So the songs are
pretty indie rock. I wouldn't say we've mellowed with age.

RM: Alright, now I did managed to check
out some recent YouTube footage, and I gotta say, Steve, you're looking
quite spritely, getting around nicely, very fit, energetic, so I'm sure the
show here in Dallas at The Door is going to be exciting.

ST: Yeah, I love The Door. I've seen some
shows there myself. I'm not sure I've ever performed there.

RM: Now when was your last visit exactly
in Dallas? I want to say last time I saw you here was SMU, McFarlin
Auditorium, with Newsboys.

ST: Right, that's probably it.

RM: Now I think you missed us on the
Squint tour, but I managed to catch you at the White Rabbit in
San Antonio.

ST: Okay, yeah.

RM: Now previous to that, tell me if you
remember this, the Bronco Bowl for the I Predict 1990
tour.

ST: Oh, I remember that show, I remember
that show because--well, there's a bowling alley there, so of course I'll
remember that.

RM: Right, of course, how can you forget
that?

ST: We had a disaster with one of the
tracks. It was a dark day.

RM: Oh, you probably don't know, that
place is now, I think, a Home Depot by the way.

ST: No way! That's actually kind of
sad.

RM: Yeah, I drive by there every once in a
while and think back to the old days of Steve Taylor in an ice cream man
costume.

We are talking to Steve Taylor of Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil.
Now we are excited about the big show this Friday night, May 16th, in
Dallas at The Door, here in Deep Ellum. You're on the road with Peter
Furler and the Peter Furler Band. How'd you get all together? Just good
timing? How'd you get Peter on the road with you?

ST: We asked Peter if there was any chance
he'd want to join us with his band on the tour since he was going to be
playing anyway. He said, "Only under one condition: I want to go on
first." I was like, "Why would you want to go on first?" The only thing I
can figure out is, you know, he plays and sings a full set, and then he
drums a full set, so I'm guessing it would be easier to end with the
drumming than start with the drumming.

RM: Or it could be that he's just honoring
a veteran musician.

ST: Well, that could be, too. [laughter]
Honoring his elders.

RM: Now Steve if you don't mind hanging
out for just a few minutes, we're going to take a break, play some new
music by Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil, and then come back and talk
to you a little bit more about the old days, is that okay?

ST: Sounds good, Robert. Whoa, buggy!
There's a buggy!

RM: [laughter] Alright, check it out,
Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil from the Blue Like Jazz
motion picture soundtrack. This one's called "A Life Preserved". We'll be
right back with Steve Taylor in Amish country.

["A Life Preserved" and "Am I In Sync?" are played]

RM: This is Deep Ellum Radio with Rock
A.D., rocking in the year of our Lord Jesus Christ, the best in classic
Christian rock, contemporary Christian rock music, and much more.

We have a feature interview right now going on with mister Steve Taylor
from Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil. Doing some old school right
there, "Am I In Sync?" from Meltdown going back to, what,
1983? 84?

ST: Yeah, 80s, 84, yeah.

RM: [laughter]
Nineteen-eighty-[mumbles].

ST: [mumbles]-four.

RM: "Am I In Sync?" still one of my
personal favorite songs after all these years. Even got a seven-year-old
daughter who knows all the words, even the mumbling in the beginning and
the end.

ST: [laughter] Well if you bring her she
can sing it.

RM: Oh, absolutely, it is an all-ages show
this Friday night at The Door, so yeah, bring the kids, old and young
alike. Tell me, that is an older track, what's the ratio going to be, old
versus new?

ST: Well, we just want everybody happy, so
we play a lot of the older stuff, and then we play enough new stuff so that
people know we're not just taking their money and not going to do an
album--there really is an album done. We thought we had to at least prove,
hey, we can have new songs, too. It's a pretty good mix.

RM: Alright, now how about the infamous
Steve Taylor costume changes? Are we going to see a Fritz
suit? Ice cream man? Mrs. Aryan? Anything like that?

ST: You know, typically not, but it is
Dallas, and it is The Door, so I may have to bring along at least one of
the outfits. I'm a little nervous, won't make any promises, but since you
asked...

RM: Well rest assured we will be elated
just to have you here in any capacity, just to see you, so don't worry
about the outfits, as long as you show up, safe and sound, we'll all be
blessed.

Okay now, for those who know your words, your lyrics, your songs over
the years, it's common knowledge that satire is kind of your go-to vehicle
lyric-wise. Steve Taylor today versus young Steve Taylor--has your
worldview changed? Are there any lyrics you've written over the years
that, well, has your worldview changed on any of the issues, or do you
stand by all those words?

ST: When I listen to the old albums--which
only happens when I have to prep for a tour--for the most part, I'm
reasonably happy. But there are certain songs that, for whatever reason,
don't sound very [unintelligible] to me anymore, or that I would have
probably changed a turn of phrase on, or things like that. You're just
constantly living in this kind of dialectic with your older material, and
as you hopefully get wiser and better at what you do, you can't help but
think, "I could've done this better." But if you go back and try to change
it, that's probably not a good idea either. A famous poet, W.H. Auden,
actually re-wrote a lot of his earlier poetry, and I think his fans weren't
happy with that choice.

RM: Oh yeah, that would absolutely be
tough. I mean, just ask George Lucas about that whole Star Wars
things.

ST: [laughter] Yeah, that's right.

RM: Alright, so it has been about thirty
years, and it was just occuring to me, I was watching some old videos,
getting ready for this chat, and I was watching the old "Lifeboat" video,
and it occurred to me that right now it would be about time for a thirty
year class reunion for the "Lifeboat" kids.

ST: That's right! Oh my gosh, just
thinking about that, crazy.

RM: So have you ever run into any of those
kids, who are now middle-age adults, saying, "Hey Steve, I was in your
video!"

ST: I think I have! I want to say we did
it on the east coast, at a studio in New Jersey, and I think that's
happened at least once or twice.

RM: I tell you what, I'd love to be a fly
on that wall. "Hey Steve! Man, it's been a long time! Haven't seen you
in thirty years! Last time I saw you, you were in a dress!"

ST: [laughter] Yeah, that's right. Well,
the video, that's funny 'cause I was thinking--we recorded the audio, of
course, and there was no dress involved, but then we did the video, so that
was all on the west coast, and they were mostly--

Oh my gosh! Three buggies in a row! Sorry. And a cheese factory! Oh
my gosh, another buggy! It's just like Amish paradise, it's everywhere,
this is beautiful.

Okay, what were we talking about? Oh yeah, the dress. So yeah, on the
west coast, the kids were mostly like already acting-types, so a lot of
them brought their managers with them, they wanted sushi for lunch. That
was a very different experience.

RM: Alright, well thank you very much
mister Steve Taylor, what a great experience this has been for me, an honor
and a privilege, so I really appreciate you taking the time. I know I've
gone past my allotted time and you've got other people to talk to.

We will see you Friday, May 16th, this Friday at The Door in downtown
Dallas, Deep Ellum, tickets available at the door at The Door, if that
makes any sense, or go to the web site at thedoorclubs.com and we will see
Steve Taylor & The Perfect Foil along with Peter Furler Band this
Friday night with Rock A.D. and Deep Ellum Radio.